A FOOTBALL club has called on the community to support its £100,000 bid to revamp its facilities.

AFC Darwen have aspirations for their Anchor Ground in Anchor Road to become a community sports hub.

The club have submitted plans to the Lancashire FA to revamp the dressing rooms and changing facilities and also create classroom facilities.

Under the bid, the current dressing rooms and changing facilities would be demolished and replaced by bigger ones.

There would be two dressing rooms, with the facilities primarily used by the senior team, but also potentially by schools in the area and the club’s junior teams.

While the new classroom would be used to train coaches, as the club are looking to develop training for four to six-year-olds, who the club call the ‘Little Darreners’.

The club said they hope to raise £75,000 to £100,000 to revamp the facilities and have applied for funding from the FA and Sport England and they have already had money from Heritage Envelopes.

Mike Vizzard, commercial manager at AFC Darwen said the plans aimed to get the whole community involved as the club is the ‘highest-ranked’ team in the borough.

Mr Vizzard said: “We are looking to raise £75,000 to £100,000 to revamp dressing rooms and changing facilities and also create classroom facilities so we can train junior coaches as we are looking at training four to six year olds - the Little Darreners - so we can look to get them into the club’s junior teams and even its senior team going forward.

“We are also applying for funding from the FA and Sport England and we have money from Heritage Envelopes.

“We’re hoping to get the whole community involved and for their support as we’re the highest ranked team in the borough.

Mr Vizzard, said the club’s current dressing rooms and changing facilities are ‘not fit for purpose.’

He said that the club will be looking at raising money on top of funding they receive through a number of fundraisers.

He added: “We’re looking at holding a Christmas fair at the club this year to raise money, and any money the FA give us, we have to raise half of it through fundraising.This is all about improving the club’s facilities so we can continue to grow as a club.

“We also want to ensure people in Darwen who have kids can play for us all the way from aged four to the senior team.”